On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that is pushing back the deadline for full REALID enforcement from Oct. 1, 2021 to May 3, 2023. This follows an earlier 12-month delay, from the prior Oct.1, 2020 deadline, that was implemented due to the pandemic.
Of the three ID-issuing jurisdictions in our region, this delay seems most likely to impact Virginia, which was relatively late in upgrading their standard IDs to meet REAL ID standards. The Virginia DMV moved a number of dealer processing services to Manheim locations at the start of 2020, to attempt to free up as much space as possible for the several million Virginians who, it was assumed, would have had until Oct. 1 to get licenses that would grant them access at TSA checkpoints, into federal buildings, and more.
Now, residents of Virginia and other states will have until May 3, 2023 to upgrade their licenses to REAL ID-compliant ones. According to the Department of Homeland Security, just 43 percent of state-issued licenses that are currently in use meet the REAL ID standards outlined in the REAL ID Act of 2005.
In D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, those getting a REAL ID license for the first time still must make an in-person DMV/MVA visit to get it. The WANADA Bulletin will continue to update its readers on any changes that states implement to their DMV operations in response to this DHS enforcement delay.
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